Former Union Chief Murray Finley, 73

August 02, 1995|By Kenan Heise, Tribune Staff Writer.

Murray Finley, 73, former president of two unions representing clothing and textile workers, also had been a member of the board of the Chicago Public Library, the Chicago Federation of Labor and the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago.

Mr. Finley was president of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union from 1976 to 1987. For the four years before that, he was president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. And from 1961 to 1972, he was manager of the Chicago Joint Board of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers.

A resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., he died Monday at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor.

"The union is almost my whole life," he said in a 1976 interview. "I find it fulfilling in terms of the things that I consider important. I believe in building a better world-not just a better house or material things for myself-but to better people's lives.

"And I believe trade unions are necessary to preserve the American way of life," he said. "I don't think we can have a free democratic society without a free democratic labor movement."

Mr. Finley joined the United Automobile Workers in the early 1940s when he was working in a plant while attending the University of Michigan. Following military service, he earned a law degree at Northwestern University and then became assistant regional attorney for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers.

After serving for more than a decade in the union's Detroit office, Mr. Finley was elected manager of the Chicago Joint Board in 1961.

Under him, the union inaugurated a program of scholarships for the children of members. He later said, "There is no justifiable reason for universities being only for the rich; there should be no financial barrier to further education. Too many workers' children are prevented from reaching their full potential by the exorbitant cost of college."

In 1967, he started a program using union funds to develop housing for people with moderate and low incomes. He helped set up and became president of the United Dwellings Foundation to build such homes.

As a member of the Chicago Public Library Board in the 1960s, he pushed for a new library and wanted low- and moderate-income housing units to be part of the structure. He also developed a plan to use 1,000 college students to serve as volunteers to read to city children.

As president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, he worked to unite it and the Textile Workers Union of America. He became president of the combined union in 1976. He also helped lead the four-year drive in the late 1970s that organized J.P. Stevens and Co., the second-largest textile manufacturer in the country.

In July of this year, his union joined with the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union to become UNITE, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

Mr. Finley was co-chairman with Coretta Scott King of the Full Employment Action Council and was a key figure in promoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday.

Survivors include his wife, Elaine; two daughters, Sharon and Susan; and three grandchildren. Services for Mr. Finley were private.